Throwing rocks at cars isn't a prank. Sometimes people die

Rocks and objects have been thrown at cars on Interstate 75 on two separate occasions last week.(Photo: Provided/Cincinnati Police Department)

Separate incidents of rocks being thrown at vehicles in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky have occurred just a few days apart. Could the incidents be related?

It’s too soon to make any kind of assumption as to the relation of the incidents, said Boone County Sheriff’s office spokesman Tom Scheben.

Reports of rocks and other items being thrown at vehicles are not uncommon. There are multiple reports of rock-throwing incidents with tragic outcomes.

Last November, a Tennessee man was killed when a chunk of concrete was thrown from an overpass onto Interstate 24 in Nashville. The chunk went through the windshield, hitting the driver, Joe C. Shelton Jr., 54, in the face, according to reports. He was found dead in the resulting multi-vehicle crash.

In 2014, Sharon Budd, a school teacher from Uniontown, Ohio, was a passenger in a car traveling Interstate 80 in central Pennsylvania, when a rock smashed through the windshield, hitting her directly in the face. She suffered permanent brain damage as a result.

For two years after the incident her husband, Randy Budd, pushed Pennsylvania lawmakers to move on a bill to install fencing on highway overpasses and bridges.

Randy Budd died by suicide in 2016. Before taking his own life, he reportedly sent one more text message to a Pennsylvania state senator urging passage of the bill. The Bridge Fencing Safety Act was adopted in 2018.

Ohio passed a law at Budd's urging in 2016. Ohio implemented a new rule in 2018 requiring fencing during work on overpasses.

The new rule followed the death of a Michigan man who was critically hurt after a sandbag tossed by juveniles from an Ohio interstate overpass in Toledo smashed through his car windshield.

Despite the regulations, objects continue to be thrown at vehicles, not always from overpasses.

Over the weekend, William Wehner, 64, of Harrison, Ohio, was seriously injured when, police say, someone threw a large rock through his windshield around 10:30 p.m. Saturday while he was driving north on KY 237 (North Bend Road) near Country Club Lane in Burlington.

The Boone County Sheriff’s department is searching for the person who threw a large rock into the windshield of a car and left a man with serious injuries.(Photo: Fox19 Now)

It was the second such incident that day, according to Boone County Sheriff’s office. About two hours earlier a deputy was dispatched to the same area of KY 237 after a motorist said that someone had thrown a rock at their vehicle.

The motorist, Lydeth Long of Hebron, told the Sheriff’s deputy that he saw what he thought were two kids throwing a rock at his vehicle. The deputy searched the area but was unable to locate any suspects or witness, according to the police report.

Lt. Steve Saunders, spokesman for Cincinnati Police Department, encouraged people to call police anytime they see individuals congregating or hanging out around overpasses. It’s a short window of opportunity to catch someone, he said.

Whether objects are being dropped from an overpass or thrown from the side of the road, it’s a dangerous situation, Saunders said.

Wehner was taken to University of Cincinnati Medical Center Saturday following the incident.

In a public Facebook post, Wehner's daughter, Meg Oleson, said the "boulder" thrown at her dad's car busted his face. He will spend the next months recovering and having surgeries to reconstruct his bones, she wrote.

"I don’t for the life of me understand who would do this to him and I don’t think I have ever been so mad in my life right now," Oleson wrote in her March 31 post. "I feel his life was spared, so for that I’m thankful and could have been worse. But what this person did to him is beyond ugly and I sure hope they catch him."

A sheriff’s deputy in central Kentucky was injured in late January and his truck severely damaged because two kids were throwing rocks.

It happened in Boyle County. Police there said rocks were being thrown at semi-trucks along Lexington Road.

The sheriff who was injured was investigating reports of rock throwing when a rock was thrown from a passing vehicle at his truck. The rock went through the vehicle and hit his face, according to reports. His truck then veered off the roadway and hit several trees before rolling over several times.